A nudge at her elbow made her look at Matt sitting next to her. He was offering her a handkerchief. “And?” she said with disdain.
“You’re supposed to be wiping away tears of joy, overwhelmed with the romance of the ceremony by now.”
“Not me,” she said smartly as the front rows of guests obediently stood to follow the bride and groom out of the chapel. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I can’t stand weddings.” She wanted to make a comment about divorce statistics, but stopped herself just in time as she realized how inappropriate that would be.
He shoved the hankie back in his pocket. “You’re the first woman I’ve ever met who didn’t become an emotional mess at a wedding.”
“Really? Then you haven’t looked very closely. How many weddings have you been to?”
“A lot. Most of my friends and colleagues are in their thirties, or at least their girlfriends are.” He winked. “Those darned biological clocks start ticking real loud about then.”
She sniffed and looked around to see if anyone in their row was making a move. “If you say so.”
“Dysfunctional relationship? Your mom and dad?”
“No.” She glared at him. “What have they got to do with anything? They’ve been happily married for thirty years.”
“So what have you got against weddings?”
It was a question she’d never been asked before and it took her a moment to remember why these occasions made her cringe so much. She blew out a breath of air before replying. “It just seems like such a huge waste of money.”
Matt’s face crumpled for a second and he appeared to be having a coughing fit.
Other guests were beginning to stare and Piper frantically slapped him on the back a few times. “Are you okay?” She felt panicky. Had he been chewing gum or something? “Matt?”
His head fell between his knees and she heard him draw a steadying breath before saying, “That is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard.”
“Idiot.” She stood up and shoved her purse under her arm. “I thought you were dying or something.”
“I might.” He chuckled again before sitting upright. “I’m sorry I lost it there. There’s something about the way you say stuff sometimes that really cracks me up.”
She frowned down at him, not entirely immune to the laughter lines at the corners of his deep brown eyes. She took a quick look around them and was relieved to see that everyone had lost interest in them. She dropped her voice a few decibels just to make sure she didn’t offend anyone. “So you love this kind of thing? For richer, for poorer, and all that?”
He made a grunting noise and stood up. “Maybe my dad would have stuck around longer if he’d married my mother. It would’ve been harder for him to walk out, I guess.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. It must have been hard on you both.”
He shrugged and indicated that they should follow the crowd outside. “It sucked, but I only met him once, so it wasn’t like I was that emotionally attached.”
She had turned away from him, but twisted her head to see a hardness settle on his features, all the laughter gone. “Just once?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “He came to get some old vinyl LPs he’d left when I was about eight—he said they were worth a few dollars and he’d send some cash along when he could. He didn’t.” His hand gave a little push at the base of her spine to urge her forward. “I still feel like a dick for getting all excited when Mom said he was coming over. He was never interested in me.”
“I’ll bet he is now that you’ve got some money,” she said sourly and felt angry for the little boy that would have given his father unconditional love.
“Piper, I really might as well not exist where he’s concerned. He may even be dead. I don’t know and I don’t care.”
The reception room was as magical as the chapel, but more relaxed with balconies, fireplaces, and a stone-paved floor below another soaring arched roof. Real candles flickered from chandeliers, and the round tables lining three sides of the room were dressed in white and silver with a scattering of pink rose petals. Piper’s heart was in her mouth when she saw that each one had a coral tea light holder on it, tiny, fragile pieces that had taken her weeks to make, but had paid her mortgage for a couple of months. God bless Melanie!
The huge water feature covering the back wall, a replica of a waterfall, caught her eye. It was so realistic it reminded her of the one behind Matt’s cabin. She’d never seen anything like it or been to such an impressive venue before, and probably wouldn’t again, but now that she saw her work where it belonged, her mind was racing with possibilities for future commissions. And dipping back into work mode took her mind off Matt’s troubling revelation about his father.
They were seated with two other couples. She’d been briefly introduced to the Dodges at the art gallery opening, and then there were Mr. and Mrs. Computer or something like that, she couldn’t remember their names. Dull, small-talk specialists, all of them, and Piper reminded herself to mention to Matt that this was another reason she hated weddings. Being stuck for hours on end with people you didn’t know and didn’t like was complete torture.
“So dear,” Mrs. Dodge said as Piper was just about to enjoy another of the stuffed shrimp en brochette hors d’ouevres. The pink chiffon ruff of the woman’s dress reminded her of something her aunt put over toilet paper rolls, even if it had cost a small fortune. “What exactly do you do?”
There was more than a drop of saccharine in the older woman’s voice, and her first instinct was to snap back actually, nothing, I’m a kept woman, like most of you. How often do you have to spread your legs for old man Dodge there? But she managed to smile sweetly and remember her manners even though she knew damn well she was being looked down on. An outsider. Not one of the “set.”
“I’m self-employed,” she said calmly and wasn’t in the least bit surprised to see Mrs. Dodge recoil slightly.
“That’s nice…”
Piper took a long swallow of champagne and shot a venomous look at Bob Dodge, who had just pinched the last bacon-wrapped shrimp with its delicious melted cheese and jalapeno topping. It had been hers by rights, but he just grinned at her like an idiot and chewed heartily.
“I make products out of things I find on the beach.” She was deliberately making herself sound like a scavenger, but she wouldn’t want this woman wearing her jewelry in any case. Piper would never be a billionaire like Matt, and she was going to keep her soul out of the marketplace.